Barking Dog: May 11, 2023
Willie Dunn, Ron Bankley - Freight Train
Was a Mi’kmaq musician, film director, and politician who often highlighted Indigenous issues in his work
Bankley was an Ontario guitarist, poet, and songwriter
John Lee Zeigler - Going Away
He was a guitarist from Kathleen, Georgia, who played guitar upside down to accommodate his left-handedness
That one was recorded in 1995 by Tim Duffy, a cofounder of the Music Maker Relief Foundation
Tommy Jarrell - As Time Draws Near
Fiddler, banjo player, and singer from Mount Airy, NC
Made his living in road construction but was an influential musician and received the National Endowment for the Arts' National Heritage Fellowship in 1982
This song is commonly known as “The Blackest Crow,” and Jarrell popularised it
Tom Paxton - What Did You Learn in School Today?
He’s a folksinger and music educator known for his involvement in the 1960s Greenwich Village folk music scene
This one is off his 1964 album Ramblin’ Boy
Cara Luft - Someday Soon
From Winnipeg
An Ian & Sylvia song first recorded in 1963
Ian & Sylvia - Long Lonesome Road
They were a well-known folk duo who started performing together in Toronto in 1959
They learned this song from Peggy Seeger, and it seems to be related to the song “Fall On My Knees”
Lee Monroe Presnell - Little Maggie
Off a 1964 album of traditional music from Beech Mountain, NC
He was from Beech Mountain, and lived in a one-room house on his son’s land, high up on the mountain
“Little Maggie” is related to the songs “Country Blues” and “Darlin’ Corey,” and was first collected in the Appalachian region in the 1800s
It’s possible that it was brought to Beech Mountain by men who had been cutting timber in West Virginia
Bob Dylan - Little Maggie
From his 1992 album Good As I Been to You
Barbara Dane - Ramblin’
She’s a folk, jazz, and blues singer from Detroit whose voice was described by Time magazine as "pure, rich ... rare as a 20 carat diamond"
The song is by Woody Guthrie, with music based on “Goodnight, Irene” by Leadbelly
David Francey - Ballad of Bowser MacRae
He’s a Scottish-Canadian folksinger who was a railyard worker for many years before pursuing a career in music at the age of 45
This is from his 2006 album Right of Passage
Stanley Triggs - Moonlight and Skies
Born in Nelson, BC in 1928
Worked throughout the province in different industries, and collected songs and stories from his colleagues
Also worked as a freelance photographer and earned a living playing in coffee houses in the 1960s
Triggs learned this song in Salmo, BC in the 1940s
Nikki Giovanni - Springtime
She’s an American poet, writer, and activist who first came to prominence in the late 60s as a member of the Black Arts Movement
This is from her 1976 album of children’s poetry The Reason I Like Chocolate
The Golden Gate Quartet - Behold the Bridegroom Cometh
They are a vocal quartet formed in Virginia by four high school students in 1934
They are still active today, but have undergone several changes in membership
This is a hymn written by RE Winsett
The Golden Gate Quartet recorded their version in 1937
McVay & Johnson - I’ll Be Ready When the Bridegroom Comes
They were old-time gospel musicians Ancil McVay and Roland Johnson from Kentucky who began playing together in the 1920s, often performing in local churches
They only made 2 recordings together, both on October 17, 1928 in Johnson City, Tennessee
Dirk Powell - Say Darling Say
He’s a Grammy-award-winning musician from Ohio who’s considered one of the leading experts on traditional Appalachian fiddle and banjo styles
From his 1999 album Hand Me Down
This is a traditional old-time song, the lyrics of which largely come from the well-known lullaby “Hush Little Baby”
Bob Miller - Bank Failures
He was a musician from Tennessee who wrote many protest songs during the Great Depression, often under different pseudonyms
He called his music “main street music,” meaning simple, socially aware music directed at the common man
This song was recorded on February 25, 1931 in New York City under the name “Bob Ferguson and his Scalawaggers”
Dave Van Ronk - Samson and Delilah
Van Ronk was a member of the Greenwich Village folk scene in New York City, known as the “Mayor of MacDougal Street”, MacDougal Street being where practically every coffeehouse in New York was located in the 1960s
From his 1964 album Inside Dave Van Ronk
It’s a traditional song about the biblical tale of Samson and Delilah
The Weather Station - Came So Easy
They’re a band from Toronto, fronted by Tamara Lindeman
This is from the 2011 album All of It Was Mine
Sonny Terry - Women’s Blues (Corrina)
Terry was a blind musician who lost his vision at 16, which prevented him from doing farm work and caused him to rely on music for a living
This is a popular country blues song with countless versions
From the 1952 album Sonny Terry: Harmonica and Vocal Solos
Wendy Smith - Time is Running Out
This was released in 1970 and appears to be Smith’s first and only recording
The only other available information about her is that she was a member of the 1968 cast of the musical HAIR on Broadway
Big Dave McLean - Someday Baby
A blues musician from Winnipeg who’s been playing for over 50 years
Song was first recorded as “Someday Baby Blues” by Sleepy John Estes and Hammie Nixon in 1935
It’s off McLean’s 2008 album Acoustic Blues: Got ‘Em from the Bottom
OJ Abbott - Hogan’s Lake
Abbott was 84 when Edith Fowke recorded him in his home in 1957 for the album Lumbering Songs from the Ontario Shanties, which was released in 1961
This song is one of many that describes daily life at a particular camp, though this song highlights the differences between lumbering camps and square timber camps, which prepared wood in square timber format to be shipped to Britain with less space wasted on the ship
Fowke notes that this song likely goes back to at least the 1860s, as wood stopped being shipped as square timber around 1870
Louis Dudek - To an Unknown in a Restaurant
He was a well-known poet, publisher, and educator from Montreal
This is from a 1957 Folkways album of poems by six Montreal poets
Letys Murrin - Mary of the Wild Moor
From an album of Ontario folk songs from 1958
This ballad was widely collected in both Britain and North America
Murrin learned it from her grandfather, who was from Frontenac County, Ontario
The tune she uses is from the Irish song “Old Rosin the Beau”
Unspecified - Ham Bone
This is off the 1978 album Songs for Children from New York City, which was recorded in playgrounds, summer camps, and schools in New York in 1978 by the musician, educator, and author Dr. Edna Smith-Edet
This is an example of hambone, also known as buckdancing, Juba dance, or patting juba
It was used to keep time for other dancers at parties, and involves stomping, slapping and patting one’s legs, arms, chest, and cheeks
The tradition was originally brought by enslaved people to the southern United States
Lyrics and music were added in the mid 19th century, and the tradition was publicly performed
This is a standardised song that’s known as “hambone,” and it contains some of the same lyrics as “Hush Little Baby”
We’ll hear a few other examples of hambone after this
New Orleans Street Musicians - Hambone
From a 1958 album of Mardi Gras music from New Orleans
That hambone is performed by a young boy who worked as a shoe shiner on the streets of New Orleans
It was recorded in September of 1957
Six Boys in Trouble - Bo Diddlie
Off the 1959 album Street and Gangland Rhythms, Beats and Improvisations by Six Boys in Trouble
The boys were 11- and 12-year-old African American boys who lived in public housing in New York City, and they improvised their music on homemade instruments
Odetta - Hush Little Baby
“Hush Little Baby” shares lyrics with “Hambone”
Odetta was a musician whose music has been called the “soundtrack to the Civil Rights movement”
She was born in Birmingham, Alabama and had operatic vocal training from the age of 13
This is from her 1960 album Ballad for Americans and Other American Ballads
It’s a traditional lullaby likely from the southern US, which has a simple rhyming structure that allows the addition of new verses which can make the song last as long as the singer chooses, just as hambone also works
Stan Rogers - 45 Years
Born and raised in Ontario, but known for his maritime-influenced music that was informed by his time spent visiting family in Nova Scotia during his childhood
This song is off the live album Home in Halifax, recorded in March of 1982 and released in 1993
Old Man Luedecke - Little Bird
This song was recorded live at the Chester Playhouse in his hometown of Chester, NS
It was originally included on his 2008 album Proof of Love
Laure Irène McNeil, Hilaire Pothier - Acadian Dance Tune
From the 1956 album Folk Music from Nova Scotia, recorded by the folklorist Helen Creighton
Hilaire was the fisheries inspector at Pubnico
He plays the fiddle on this song, while his sister Laure plays the piano
Karrie Potter - You Can’t Just Take Our Homes Away
From a 1983 album of songs from the American Tenants’ Movement
This song was adapted from “Mountain Song” by Holly Near
David Rovics - Bubbling Up
He’s a musician and writer based in Oregon who’s been touring internationally since the 1990s
This is off his 2014 album All the News That’s Fit to Sing
Gordon Lightfoot - Steel Rail Blues
From his 1966 album Lightfoot
Pete Seeger - The Thresher
Was a very influential folk singer and an activist who, though blacklisted during the McCarthy era, remained a prominent public figure who advocated for Civil Rights, environmental causes, and international disarmament through his music
From his 1962 album Broadside Ballads, Vol. 2
The song was written by Gene Kadish, who was greatly influenced by Seeger
Karen James - The Ghost Lover
A folksinger who grew up in England, Spain, and France, and moved to Canada as a teenager
The song is descended from an English folk ballad, though James got her version from a recording collected by Maud Karpeles in Bonavista Bay, Newfoundland either in the late 20s or early 30s
Catherine McKinnon - Ten Thousand Miles
She’s a singer and actress from New Brunswick who began performing as a young child
This is from her first album, Voice of an Angel, from 1964
It’s an 18th century folk ballad also known as “The Turtle Dove” or “Fare Thee Well”
The earliest published version of the song appeared in England in 1710
Lightnin’ Hopkins - See That My Grave is Kept Clean
Hopkins was a country blues musician from Texas who gained a broader audience with the folk revival of the 1960s after recording and performing around Texas in the 40s and 50s
He continued to tour and record throughout the 60s and 70s, and was Houston, Texas’s poet in residence for 35 years
The song was written by Blind Lemon Jefferson and first recorded in 1927
Recorded January, 1959 in Texas
Alan Mills - Goodbye, Fare Ye Well
Canadian folk singer, writer, and actor from Lachine, Quebec
Known for popularising Canadian folk music, and for writing “I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly”
Made a member of the Order of Canada in 1974 for his contributions to Canadian folklore
This shanty is sometimes called “Homeward Bound,” and was often sung when a ship was preparing to leave a foreign port and sail home
Pharis & Jason Romero - Cumberland Gap
Lonesome Ace Stringband - Solly’s Little Favourite
